Vital Center
The term Vital Center was coined by the Harvard historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. in his 1949 book of that title.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Schlesinger first mentioned the term in a New York Times article in April 1948 titled “Not Left, Not Right, But a Vital Center.”<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
US President Bill Clinton started to use the phrase "vital center" in speeches given during his term of office.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1997, Schlesinger noted in an article for Slate magazine that Clinton hoped to appropriate the term to mean "middle of the road" or something that his "DLC fans" might prefer its meaning to be, which would locate it "somewhere closer to Ronald Reagan than to Franklin D. Roosevelt." In the Slate article, Schlesinger strongly rejected that interpretation of the term:<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Template:QuotationHe would later reiterate this argument in his 1998 introduction, objecting to the domestic use of the phrase:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Template:QuotationIn 2022, Oxford University Press published a book called What Happened to the Vital Center? Presidentialism, Populist Revolt, and the Fracturing of America,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> a reexamination of Schlesinger’s book.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
References
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Further reading
- Schlesinger, Arthur M. The vital Center: The Politics of Freedom. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1949.
- Schlesinger, Arthur M. "It's My 'Vital Center'". Slate. 10 January 1997.